Dom and Lofty: what should happen
by Good cyberman
Summary: What I think could happen in the upcoming weeks for Dom and Lofty after what happened at the wedding.
1. Chapter 1

Sacha ducked behind the wall as Dom entered the ward.

"Sacha! Stop hiding from me. I know you're there. And you know I'm going to ask you about Lofty, so just tell me what's going on." Dom shouted at the hiding man as he headed back towards the staff room, beckoning for Sacha to follow him. Which, with an over exaggerated sigh, he did.

"I guess you heard, then?" Sacha asked as he shut the door behind him.

"Yes, Movern told me about it this morning when I bumped into her at Pulses. Did he tell you why?" Dom replied, sounding a little exasperated.

"He spoke to me first, actually. He said that he thought AAU would better suit his experience in the ED. And then I asked him for the real reason and he told me what you said and how he needed some time away to get his thoughts together." Sacha answered.

"Oh, well he should have spoken to me."

"As your boss, I'm glad he has transferred -to stop your personal issues becoming, well an issue for us to. But as your friend, are you sure you meant what you said, because I've seen the way Lofty looks at you."

"yeah but-" Dom stopped, an expression of realisation washed over his face to which Sacha smiled and got up with a clap to Dom's back and left the room.

Dom sat there for a good few minutes, thinking about all of the stolen glances they had shared before finally taking out his phone and tapping a quick message to the man himself.

 _Hey, can you meet me on the roof in 5 minutes, Dom._

After hitting send, he got up, told Sacha that he would be back soon and quickly grabbed his hoodie from the locker room before running up the stairs to the roof. About half way up, he got a reply which just said _ok_.

Lofty was making a bed down on AAU when he received the text from Dom. Part of him was excited to hear what he was going to say but the rest of him feared that it was just going to be more of Dom telling him what he is feeling. He felt bad for leaving Keller without telling him, but he was still quite upset and annoyed at Dom for the way he had dismissed his feelings.

After finishing the bed, he went over to Mr Griffin and asked if he could take a break, when he had replied with yes, Lofty replied to Dom and made for the stairs.

Dom made it to the roof, and headed over to the railings. Once there he smiled to himself. How many times had he been on this roof with boy trouble? His break up with Kyle, all the conversations with Bernie about Isaac and not to forget his pic-nic with Lee.

"Let's hope I can break this roof's bad luck, today." Dom murmured to himself when he heard the door open and Lofty call out "Dom?"

"Lofty, over here." Dom responded, a smile, once again, appearing on his face.

"Hey," Lofty said when he reached the railings, "What did you want to say? Mr Griffin runs a tight ship down on AAU and I don't think he wants me away too long."

"Well, I wanted to talk about what I said the other day-" Dom began but Lofty cut in.

"Look, Dom, I get it. And I'm sorry for leaving without telling you, it was a bad move. But I hope we can still be friends."

"That's it actually," Dom began, shaking his head when he saw the look of sadness that ran across Lofty's face, "No, I mean, I don't mean what I said the other day. It was bad of me to try and tell you what you are feeling, and I realise now that I was wrong. It just didn't cross my mind that you actually liked me-I guess I can be quite oblivious sometimes." Dom said, ending with a quiet chuckle.

"You really mean that?" Lofty asked.

"Yes, and I'm sorry. But could I maybe make up for it with a drink tonight?" Dom asked, slightly nervous.

"What, like as a date?"

"Yeah, if you like?"

"Ok, then. I better go before I'm missed" Lofty said, grinning and making to go before turning back and giving Dom a kiss on the cheek, "Meet you outside Wyvern at the end of our shift?"


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Finally got around to writing another chapter. Will be writing more very soon :)**

 **Goodcyberman,**

"Hey," Dom spoke into his phone; Zosia had finally found the time to ring him after abandoning him for America, "How're you settling in?"

"Great, the program here at Yale is just amazing, but I didn't call to talk about me. How is everything going with Lofty and Freddie? It's been ages since we have had some love triangle drama." She replied.

"Well, there is no Freddie. I told him about what happened at the wedding and dumped him-"

"So, you and Lofty, eh?"

"Actually no, well sort of, I don't know. After getting rid of Freddie I told him that he didn't really have feelings for me and it wouldn't work"

"Dom! Sometimes you really can be an idiot. Go find him right now and ask. Him. Out." Zosia shouted down the phone.

After putting the speaker back to his ear, Dom smiled and said "Well I already did, which I would have explained if you hadn't tried to deafen me. Earlier I asked him to go to the roof and I told him I didn't mean it and we're meeting at Albie's tonight"

To this Zosia almost squealed, "Oh Dom I'm really happy for you. Lofty actually sounds like a nice guy. You haven't had a nice boyfriend since Kyle."

"Yes, well I messed that one up, didn't I?"

"Which I was just coming on to; You have come so far since then. You've kicked the lying and you've become much friendlier and less competitive. So, don't go back on that, yeah? Be good and honest with Lofty, he deserves that. And you deserve him."

"I think I have finally found a nice guy. Any way how're you doing?"

"Better than I thought I would be. How's Ollie doing?"

"Well I spoke to Jac the other day," hearing Zosia's shock he added, "Yeah I know, and she said he's been wallowing a bit at home with his box sets but he's being kept busy while mentoring Damon."

"Good, look I have to go now. My break is nearly over. Love you, bye" Zosia said.

"Love you too, bye." Dom said before hanging up.

He left the locker room to go see to his elderly patient in bay 6 with only an hour to go until the end of his shift.

With Zosia's words echoing in his head he entered the lift, having gotten changed out of his scrubs, and waited to be taken down to where Lofty would, hopefully, be awaiting his arrival; He had been held up sorting out discharge papers for Mrs Neddley in bay 6 due to the lack of nurses on the ward.

"Dom!" Lofty shouted catching his attention as the lift doors opened, "I've been waiting for nearly half an hour, I thought you'd bailed or something" He finished a shy smile finding its way across his face.

"I was held up." Dom replied smiling, "Doing your job" He said pointing his finger at Lofty.

"Sorry," He said back, looking down.

"It's ok. Not like it's your fault Fletch can't sort out any competent agency nurse to fill in"

"I guess not," He said, crouching down to pick up his bag, "Shall we go then" He said, motioning for Dom to walk ahead and out of the door.

They headed out of the, somewhat slow, sliding doors and towards Albie's. The evening was rather cool seeing as it was October, but neither were bothered as they were both far too nervous to feel the cold.

"A pint and a glass of red wine, please" Lofty asked the bartender as Dom went to get them a table in a corner to evade gossip; but, as Lofty had pointed out, it wasn't really necessary due to the fact Zosia was in America and Dom was the gossip its self.

After getting the drinks, Lofty headed over to the table Dom had found and chuckled slightly as he noticed Dom trying to hide behind a pot plant from Essie who had just walked in arm in arm with Raf.

"One red wine, Serena Campbell would be proud." Lofty said, placing the drinks down on the table.

"You know about Ms Campbell? I'd have thought she was before your time started in the civilised upstairs." Dom replied, gracefully sliding out from behind the plant.

"She may have left before I came back, but her fondness for Shiraz was known throughout the hospital thanks to the glare she wore when there wasn't any." Lofty answered, smiling lightly.

"So, how was your day on AAU?" Dom asked, picking up his glass for a sip.

"It was alright. But I don't think it's for me; brought back too many bad memories from my last few days in the ED. And I also had a bit of a clash with people, I guess I didn't quite fit in down there."

"Um, look, Lofty I- I hope you don't mind me asking, but what did happen before you left the ED?"

"No, of course not, it's just a bit hard to talk about." Lofty said after taking a drink.

"It's ok. I just can see it is affecting you and wondered if I could help in any way." Dom said, resting his hands on the slightly sticky table to stop him from rubbing them together under the table.

"Well, it was a really busy day and we had this agency nurse in, Dianne. I was in a lift with a patient, Mr Keogh and Dianne, the patient went in to VF and we started compressions, then we had to shock them, so we got the pads on and I charged said clear and shocked only Dianne got shocked too. She died." Lofty finished, looking down at the table with his hands on his head.

"Hey," Dom started, reaching up for Lofty's hands and taking them into his own, "It wasn't your fault, Lofty. And I'm sure you did everything you could." He continued, squeezing Lofty's hands, this didn't have much affect however, so he bit the bullet and went out to where Essie would surely see them to hug Lofty. After a few minutes the curly haired man had calmed down enough, and they sat back down.

"I'm sorry, Dom. Not exactly the best first date." Lofty said finishing his drink.

"It is perfect because it is between me and you." Dom smiled back.

"So how was your day?" Lofty asked, his smile returning to grace his features.

"It was ok. I had a call from Zosia finally, during which she nearly bit my head off for how I dealt with the whole Freddie and you situation, until she found out about the roof, of course."

"How's she doing, she's at Yale, right?"

"Yeah, she's ok. Though I can tell she's missing everyone. Especially Ollie."

"And how's he coping. I ran into him briefly this morning in Pulses and it sounded like he did nothing but watch boxsets all weekend."

"That sounds about right. He's a bit hung up over the whole thing. And I heard he's put himself back into competition with Darwin's very own Italian heartthrob."

"Who, Matteo Rossini. I always thought I looked like him but without a beard, you know" At this Dom began laughing and just shaking his head, "What?!" Lofty asked beginning to laugh himself.

"It's just, I'm imagining Matteo showing up to a fun run in a chicken out-fit" Dom managed to get out, still laughing, "But, seriously, I wouldn't like you if you were like that stuck up Italian consultant. He may have managed to melt Jac's heart, but he'd never make it anywhere near mine if he tried. I'm only interested in one guy at the moment." Dom smiled, finishing his drink as well.

"Oh, um Dom, Essie is looking right at us and I think she's getting ready to move over here."

"Oh, crap. Do you fancy getting out of here? I'm starving, we could go to the chippie and go for a walk?"

"Sounds great" Lofty said, as Dom stood up, putting on his jacket.

After Lofty had done the same, they headed toward the door.

"Oh, we were just coming to join you two. Why were you hidden over there anyway?" Essie asked, grabbing Dom's arm.

"Our usual spot was taken when we arrived, we are just going now, Lofty's driving me home. See you tomorrow" Dom lied, a little too unconvincingly but Essie just smiled at them as Lofty waved and they made their way through the door.

"I can't believe you ate all those chips!" Dom exclaimed as they left the chip shop.

"It wasn't that many," Lofty defensively responded, "And I didn't have any lunch today."

"I'm only messing." Dom said as he shivered.

"Are you cold?" Lofty asked, and without waiting for a response, put his arm around Dom's back, pulling him in closer.

"Thanks," Dom said, smiling at being so close to Lofty.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Here is chapter 3. Just a quick question, who else is absolutely fed up with Fredrik? I wish he would just leave.**

 **Enjoy the chapter,**

 **Goodcyberman.**

Dom finally got home after his evening with Lofty. It had been great, they had walked around the town and been for another drink in a pub on the high street. And above all else they had managed not to bump into any more of their friends and colleagues. Not that he didn't want people to know about him and Lofty, he just didn't want them getting in the way of their perfect first date.

Within 30 minutes he was lying in bed gazing up at his ceiling. He had had to downsize seeing as he had moved out of his Zosia's and Arthur's flat and straight into Isaac's and didn't exactly have much time to put his money away to save for the deposit on a bigger flat. But it was gratifying to finally have his own apartment on his own.

 _Did you get home safe? -Lx_

Dom's phone went off and he read the message smiling a little but mentally berating himself at the same time; he had promised to let Lofty know he had made it home safe after declining his offer to drive him.

 _Yeah, sorry I had so much fun tonight it just slipped my mind to text you. -Dx_

He tapped the message out quickly and hit send, not yet putting his phone back on the nightstand.

 _Its ok. See you on Keller tomorrow, sleep well. Lx_

After reading the text, Dom decided it would be best not to reply or they would never get to sleep, he placed his phone back in its spot and plugged it in to charge. Smiling to himself, he drifted off into the best night's sleep he had had in weeks.

"Dom!" Morven shouted as the man in question headed pest Pulses and into the lift, surprisingly early for a change. "Dom, get over here. I've bought you a coffee." She said, smiling suspiciously and holding up a paper cup.

"Oh yeah," Dom said heading over to where his bubbly friend sat, "And what is it you want in return for this kind offering?"

"Well, a certain curly haired nurse," She said noticing the smile gracing Dom's face, "seems a little too chipper for this early in the morning, and I wondered if it had anything to do with what you got up to last night."

"Hang on, how on earth do you know I was anywhere near Lofty last night?"

"Ah, well, when I raised this with Raf he said that Lofty left rather early last night with you and that he must have gotten an early night after dropping you off. So now I'm asking you what really happened."

"Ok, well seeing as I'm early I guess I could tell you," Dom began and on seeing Morven smile hastened to add, "but you can't tell anyone, and I mean anyone. So, we went on a kind of date last night, but after Essie and Raf spotted us in Albie's we went and got some dinner and went for a walk and talked. That's all."

"Ooooh. Exciting. You better keep a hold of this one Dom. He's a real nice guy."

"I know. Anyway, why was he on AAU this morning? I thought he was back on Keller today."

"He was just getting some stuff from his locker, his trainers and stuff."

"Oh right. Look I better go. I've got my work cut out if I want to get any good spots in theatre now that Nina chose Fredrik for that award." Dom said with a bitter look on his face as he said Fredrik's name.

"Ok, see you later. Keep me posted." Morven shouted after Dom as he headed over to the lift.

"Ah, Mr Copeland, I want to speak with you, if you don't mind" Hansen spoke as Dom entered the lift where the Swede stood.

"Of course," Dom said, trying to read Hansen's face to gage the severity of this meeting to no avail.

"Come up to my office as soon as you can, then please."

"Will do, Mr Hansen." Dom said as the lift doors opened, and he rushed out on to the ward, straight past Lofty and Essie at the nurses' station without so much as a glance and into the locker room.

"Dom, are you alright?" Lofty asked, kindly, only half through the door to the locker room. Upon seeing Dom half way through changing, his scrub top not quite on yet he blushed, "Oh, um, sorry. I'll come back in a minute"

"No, its fine," Dom said, pulling the maroon top over his head, "I have to go and see Hansen, so I didn't have time to stop, sorry."

"Oh, no its alright. Have you got any idea what it's about?"

"Honestly no, but you know that man. He's practically a robot, I don't know of a single person who has been able to tell what he is feeling from just reading his face."

"Yeah, he doesn't make it easy for us."

"Mm, look I have to go now but could you tell Sacha where I am? Ms Karnik already prefers Fredrik over me I really don't need to be on the wrong side of him as well." Dom asked, pulling his staff lanyard on and heading over to where Lofty stood.

"Sure," he said moving out of the way, so Dom could get out of the room.

"Thank you," Dom said, sincerely, gently squeezing Lofty's shoulder before heading out of the room and towards the stairs; he couldn't stand standing in a lift brooding over what Hansen wanted.

"Come in." Dom heard after knocking on the door to Hansen's office.

"Dom, take a seat," Hansen began as Dom hovered in the doorway. After Dom had sat down he continued, "I'm sure you're wondering why I summoned you here," At Dom's slight nod he explained, "Well, as you are aware we are preparing to decide who is the junior doctor of the year."

"Yes, well Ms Karnik has decided to back Mr Johansen on Keller so,"

"Well that may be, but I, as a senior consultant and CEO, also get to back someone. And I would like to support you."

"Oh, that's a bit of a shock." Dom said, taken aback.

"You shouldn't be so surprised, Dominic. You are an excellent Doctor and surgeon and just because Fredrik has done something to win Ms Karnik over should not mean that your talent goes unrecognised. I will continue mentoring and keeping an eye on you to ensure you are being used to your full potential during your time here."

"Oh, right. Well, thank you, Mr Hansen. I should really be going, my shift started 10 minutes ago."

"Yes, duty calls. See you soon, Mr Copeland." Hansen finished as Dom stood and left the room.

When Dom returned to Keller, Lofty was taking a patient to X-ray so he found Sacha to let him know he was back and get his cases for the day.

"Dom, thank god. I was beginning to worry. You're with me for today."

"Yeah, Hansen wanted to talk with me about the whole award thing,"

"Oh yeah. Any way we best get on."

From then on Dom was busy most of the morning. Him and Sacha went to theatre to do a regular splenectomy and he had to deal with a particularly tricky old gentleman with abdominal pains.

"Hey, could you help me with this case?" Dom asked Lofty, who was sat at the nurses' station chatting with Essie.

"Yeah, sure. But you do know I'm a nurse, right? If you don't know then I'm not sure I will." He replied with a grin.

"It's more the actual patient. He is rather difficult to deal with, if you know what I mean."

"Oh right, of course. How did it go with Hansen, earlier?" He asked.

"It was good actually, he wants to put me up for that award and mentor me through it."

"That's great," Lofty replied as the reached Bay 2.

"Mr Smythe, this is Nurse Chiltern," Dom said gesturing to the man beside him.

"Call me Lofty," Lofty said to the man, reaching out to meet the man's hand to shake it.

"So, what seems to be the problem?" Lofty asked, kindly.

"Well it's my stomach, you see. Been hurting for a few weeks now."

"Were there any accidents or incidents that started it?"

"No, not that I can think of. Just woke up one morning and it 'urt." The man replied.

"Could you let, Mr Copeland, here, examine you?" Lofty asked.

"Couldn't you do it. You seem like a good guy."

"I'm afraid not no, but Mr Copeland is a great doctor and a great guy too." Lofty replied, with a smile.

"I guess so," The man said, allowing Dom to examine him after sending a look to Lofty which simply said, 'thank you'.

"He was a pretty hard patient to crack, wasn't he?" Lofty said as they headed out to get a coffee on a break.

"Yeah, thank you for getting him to let me do that. I guess I could do with working on my bedside manner."

"The trick is talking to the patients about their injuries first, being kind and gentle, before trying to actually do anything. Also, I think they like nurses better because we aren't the ones with the knives, you know."

"Fair point," Dom replied, before stepping up to the counter and ordering their coffees.

"Why is she smirking at us?" Lofty asked as they went to sit at a table.

"Who, oh right, Morven. I may have told her about our date last night when she ambushed me earlier, sorry."

"No, it's ok, you can tell whoever you want, and I'm sure she didn't give you too much of a choice. I only spent one day on AAU, but I sure found out how forceful she can be when she wants too."

"That's true. She is quite a handful."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4:**

Lofty had settled right back in after his little escaped on AAU and he and Dom were the new dream team on Keller. Essie didn't mind being bumped, though, especially seeing as she got all the latest gossip. It had been a few months since their first date and their relationship was stronger than ever.

"Lofty, could you come and see me in my office, quickly?" Sacha asked Lofty on a deceptively quiet night shift.

"Of course," Lofty replied, putting down the file he was holding and heading towards the consultants' office.

"Take a sit," Sacha said, already sat in his own chair, "I've just had a call, your landlord has been trying to contact you for the last few hours." Sacha stated.

"Oh, my phone is in my locker. I didn't want it going off and waking a patient or something. What did he want?" Lofty replied, obviously a little intrigued by the situation.

"Well, it's your flat. A fire started in the flat below yours and by the time he got through to me it had spread to your flat too. The landlord managed to get some of your stuff for you, I think he mentioned your laptop and some photos along with a few clothes, but he doesn't think much else is salvageable." Sacha said, a solemn look on his face.

"Right. Do you mind if I take a break, so I can sort out somewhere to stay?" Lofty asked, getting up from his seat.

"Of course. I was thinking of giving you the rest of the shift off, actually. We can cope if you want to go." Sacha offered a sympathetic smile on his face.

"Thank you. I'll see. Did my landlord say where I could get my stuff from?"

"Oh, he's bringing it here, I think." Sacha said as there was a knock on the door, "Come in"

"Oh, hello Mr Levy, I have Lofty's stuff here from his landlord, seems to have forgotten your ward change, mate." Noel said, hovering in the door way.

"Hi Noel, thanks for bringing it up," Lofty said moving over to the door to take the bags from him.

"No problem. See you around, guys." Noel said, leaving with a polite wave. Lofty followed after him taking what was left of his belongings to the locker room.

As soon as he set the things down, he went over to his locker to get his phone. Dom was the first person he wanted to call.

"Lofty? Ugh, what time is it? Why are you calling me? What wrong?" Dom said as he answered the phone having just woken up.

"Hi," Lofty said and Dom instantly new something was wrong, he didn't have the same spark he usually did.

"What's wrong?"

"Well, my flat is on fire."

"Wait, what? Are you ok, you're supposed to be on shift!" Dom said, worry coming through in his voice.

"I am, Sacha had a call from my landlord. One of the other flats had a fire and it has spread. I only have two bags of stuff, Dom. Everything is gone."

"It's going to be ok, you have clothes, right?"

"Yeah, and he got my laptop out."

"Well then you have all you need."

"I need to go now, thanks for calming me down. I'm going to call Robyn and see if I can stay with her."

"Are you sure? Isn't she the one with the baby?"

"Yeah, but I don't have another option."

"Well you could stay with me, if you want?" Dom offered, going a little quieter with shyness.

"If you're sure"

"Ok then. Do you need me to come and get you?"

"If you don't mind, Sacha has given me the rest of the shift off and I wouldn't be able to carry all of this stuff."

"Ok, give me half an hour." Dom said before they said their goodbyes and he got off the phone.

After sorting out some of his things so he would be able to access the ones he needed most, Lofty headed back out onto the ward to tell Sacha he would be going soon.

"Sacha," Lofty began as he reached the nurse' station, "Dom is going to be here to pick me up shortly, so I'll be going soon."

"Alright, Lofty." Sacha said, heading out around to where Lofty stood and giving him one of his infamous bear hugs. "It'll all be fine in the end, mate. You'll just have to do a bit of shopping which I'm sure will delight Mr Copeland. And, hey, the rota shows you both have the day off tomorrow!" Sacha finished, letting Lofty go.

"I know it will, Sacha. See you soon." Lofty said heading back to the locker room to change from his scrubs.

A knocking on the locker room door snapped Lofty out of his daze, Dom poked his head around the door, "You ready to go?" He asked, kindly.

"Yeah," Lofty said, standing up to grab his bags but Dom had already grabbed one of them and offered his free hand for Lofty to hold. They walked out of the hospital in a comfortable silence, giving Lofty the time he needed to get everything sorted out in his head.

"I think I'm over it now." Lofty said as they sat down in the car.

"Really?" Dom said, shocked at how quickly Lofty had come to terms with it.

"Yeah, I mean, I haven't been at that flat long, and my wardrobe needs updating anyway, and my land lord agreed that in the event of my things being damaged due to another's fault then he would give me a little money to help sort me out. He's a good friend of my parents and is absolutely loaded, you see." Lofty replied, a smile appearing on his face as he reached out to grab Dom's hand which was on the gear stick.

"Right, well, if you need new clothes we better go shopping. We're both off tomorrow, are we not?"

"Yeah. Sounds great." Lofty said, sincerely as Dom started the car and began the short drive to his flat.


End file.
